1960-61 NHL Replay - week ending 29 October

It's the return engagement between the two League leaders and Boston continues the chase for its first win of the season . . .

23 October 1960 - Chicago (0) at Boston (2)

A pair of second-period goals and twenty-five Don Simmons saves were the combination Boston needed to finally get into the win column with a 2-0 victory over the visiting Black Hawks. A scoreless first-period didn’t do the Bruins’ positional play justice, and their scoring challenges had to be on their mind as they entered the second period still without a goal despite playing art home. But at 6:35 Johnny Bucyk converted a beautiful pass from Jerry Toppazzini off a turnover to put the Bs in front, and just two minutes later Leo Boivin banged one in from the blue line to double the home-ice advantage. The Boston Garden crowd had seen this movie already this season, and were fearing the worst as their club went completely into their shell (3 shots) for the final twenty minutes, but the defense (and Simmons) held firm and Chicago could cash in none of their twelve shots in the final frame. [box] [stats]

Don Simmons gets the shutout - and Boston's first win

23 October 1960 - Toronto (4) at Detroit (2)

Toronto scored three times in the middle period to take the lead and Dave Keon’s short-handed goal halfway through the third put the game away. Allan Johnson got Detroit off to a good start at home when he scored at 13:54 of the first period, although this came somewhat against the run of play, and this had to concern the Detroit bench. The Leafs continued to have more of the puck in the second twenty, and turned that into a goal at 2:30 When Bert Olmstead scored from the right circle. The score stuck there for almost fifteen minutes as the two clubs took turns trying to push each other around, and Bob Pulford’s interference call at 15:50 looked like it might give the Wings a chance. But it was Toronto who struck, Ron Stewart finishing off a short-handed breakout at the end of Keon’s pass with the goal that broke the tie. Three minutes later, Olmstead grabbed his second to make it 3-1 and Detroit had a hill to climb in the third. Murray Oliver closed them to within a goal after only four minutes but, with Pulford in the box again, again the Red Wing power play let them down - this time it was Keon doing the short-handed finishing after Carl Brewer (two assists, +4) sprung him clear with a ricocheted pass off the boards. [box] [stats]

Bert Olmstead tallies twice to take Toronto to the top

23 October 1960 - Montreal (4) at New York (6)

The Rangers’ special teams helped them grab the lead after a combined ten goals in the first forty minutes, and they held on to defeat the Canadiens in New York. Things did not look promising for the home team in the early going, as Dickie Moore and Don Marshall scored for Montréal in the first two minutes of the game, and they trailed 3-1 after Jean Beliveau had countered Camille Henry’s response. But the Canadiens took two penalties in the final two minutes of the period, and it cost them dearly. With Jean-Guy Talbot in the box for tripping, Andy Hebenton scored at 19:17 and the dust-up after the goal resulted in Marcel Bonin taking Talbot’s place in the sin bin on a roughing call. Less than thirty seconds later, Henry tipped Andy Bathgate’s service past Jacques Plante (one of Bathgate’s four assists) for his second goal of the period and the game was knotted at three after a breathless opening period. The action didn’t slow much in the second period, but this time the traffic was largely one-sided. Bill Gadsby scored twice in a two-minute span just before the halfway mark of the period, and Dean Prentice punished another Montréal penalty with a PPG in the waning seconds of the period. Dickie Moore squeezed a Canadiens goal in before the siren ended the period, but NY had a two-goal lead and their defence in front of Jack McCartan was doing its best to limit Montréal’s chances. They tried getting physical (eleven hits) but the Rangers didn’t budge and the explosion of goals dried up quickly and completely in the third period. [box] [stats] 

Bill Gadsby scored twice in 2:05 to put the Rangers in control

25 October 1960 - Montreal (3) at Chicago (1)

The Canadiens rebounded from a poor first period to score three straight goals that helped them to outpace Chicago at The Stadium. A scoreless first in which the Habs could manage only three shots on Glenn Hall got even worse when, despite a more energetic showing on offence, the Black Hawks got on the scoresheet first behind Ed Litzenberger’s goal at 13:36. The momentum was building for Montréal, though, and Andre Pronovost tied the game two minutes later and then Dickie Moore untied it in the Canadiens’ favor two minutes after that. While Chicago was increasingly finding it a struggle to create space, Moore banged in another at 7:46 of the final period for a two-goal lead from which the Hawks could not recover. Nine different Habs landed hits and Montréal won largely without the services of Henri Richard who spent nineteen minutes in the penalty box, missing almost the entire third period as the result of an ugly exchange with Jack Evans that earned him both the fighting major and a misconduct. [box] [stats]

Dickie Moore's two goals were the difference in Chicago

26 October 1960 - Detroit (5) at New York (1)

It wasn’t Gump Worsley’s finest hour, as the Red Wings beat him five times on only twenty-one shots in front of his home crowd. Brian Cullen’s goal less than two minutes after the puck was dropped got New York off to a bright start, but Detroit’s stars got them back to the front at the close of the period - Gordie Howe assisted twice in a span of 1:15, once to Alex Delvecchio and once to Norm Ullman, to make it 2-1 at the break. The top line kept it up in the second frame as the Wings scored three times on just five shots, Delvecchio, Howe and Ullman each getting one as Detroit ran the score out to 5-1 where it ended after a scoreless third period. All three players ended the game with five points, and Glenn Hall made 33 stops. [box] [stats]

The "Production Line" produces fifteen points against the Rangers

27 October 1960 - New York (1) at Boston (2)

After going seven games without a victory to begin the campaign, Boston made it back-to-back wins by edging New York in a close game. Charlie Burn’s elbowing infraction led to Andy Hebenton’s power-play goal and a Rangers lead at 8:19 of the first, but Jim Bartlett tied the game with a score at 13:10 of the second. When Doug Mohns was sent off for cross-checking late in the period it was the Bruins who took advantage, Don McKenney finding a crease with just five seconds left in the NY man advantage to score a SHG that made the score two to one. A nervy third period followed with neither side able to seize the upper hand or, in fact, to score as Don Simmons stopped all eleven Ranger shots in the final third of the game to preserve their second straight two-point effort at home. Lou Fontinato (four hits) and Jim Morrison tried to rally the Rangers from the back line, but Boston’s first unit of Bucyk, McKenney and Toppazzini was everywhere with fifteen shots on goal. [box] [stats]

Don McKenney's short-handed goal was the decider

29 October 1960 - Boston (1) at Montreal (5)

Life on the road hit hard for the recently-resurgent Bruins, as they were throttled and thumped by Montréal north of the border. Outshot by nearly two-to-one, the Bs watched powerlessly as the Canadiens top line scored three times in less than four minutes of the opening period, essentially putting the game away soon after it had started. Another goal for that group followed early in the second and it was all just a matter of ‘how many’; Johnny Bucyk did prevent the whitewash, but Henri Richard converted a breakway with five minutes left in the game to put an exclamation point on the Canadiens’ demonstration of the gap between the top and the bottom of the League. [box] [stats]

Bernie Geoffrion's four-point evening leads Montréal

29 October 1960 - Chicago (5) at Toronto (4)

Chicago blasted their way to a big lead and then held off a furious Maple Leaf charge to win an eventful affair. It was Toronto that scored first, Bob Pulford finding the back of the net just three minutes in, but that would be the last highlight for the home team for quite some time. Ab McDonald equalized for the Hawks just twenty-one seconds later and Bobby Hull put them ahead at 5:28, where they stayed until the end of the period despite getting just five pucks on goal in the first twenty minutes. Things were much different in the second, as Chicago barraged Johnny Bower from the opening face-off; sixteen CBH shots resulted in two more goals, Ron Murphy scoring at 14:16 and McDonald getting his second on the power-play just ten seconds before the end of the period. Pulford's double minor for roughing early in the third gave Eric Nesterenko the chance to score on the man advantage as well to make the score 5-1 and it appeared as if the rout was on. But Dave Keon scored short-handed on the back end of the double penalty and suddenly the Leafs had a jump in their step. Bert Olmstead scored just over a minute later to make the score 5-3, and Pulford's second goal with two minutes left gave Toronto a puncher's chance. Bower came out of the net with 1:15 to go, but the Leafs couldn't find the tying goal as Glenn Hall stuffed a great scoring chance from Pulford at the final horn. A chippy game kept the officials occupied with the issuance of 34 minutes in penalties, including three roughing calls, an unsportsmanlike conduct and a ten-minute misconduct. [box] [stats]

Ab McDonald pots a pair to lead the Hawks

Standings as of 29 October 1960

Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS	Pct	GF	GA
Montreal Canadiens	12	6	3	3	15	0.625	49	39
Toronto Maple Leafs	10	6	4	0	12	0.600	32	31
Chicago Black Hawks	10	5	4	1	11	0.550	34	27
Detroit Red Wings	10	4	5	1	9	0.450	24	21
New York Rangers	10	4	5	1	9	0.450	32	37
Boston Bruins	10	2	6	2	6	0.300	19	35

League Leaders

Goals	Team	G
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	11
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	9
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	8
Keon, Dave	Toronto	7
Hebenton, Andy	New York	6

Assists	Team	A
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	16
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	14
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	13
Harvey, Doug	Montreal	11
Ullman, Norm	Detroit	10

Points	Team	PTS
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	24
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	24
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	23
Delvecchio, Alex	Detroit	13
Keon, Dave	Toronto	12
Ullman, Norm	Detroit	12

Penalty Minutes	Team	PIM
Richard, Henri	Montreal	36
Talbot, Jean-Guy	Montreal	28
Bonin, Marcel	Montreal	22
Fleming, Reggie	Chicago	21
Hull, Bobby	Chicago	17

Plus/Minus	Team	+/-
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	19
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	19
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	19
Langlois, Albert	Montreal	15
Sloan, Tod	Chicago	13

Goals-Against Average	Team	GAA
Bassen, Hank	Detroit	1.50
Sawchuk, Terry	Detroit	2.14
Hall, Glenn	Chicago	2.61
Worsley, Gump	New York	3.01
Bower, Johnny	Toronto	3.11

Save Percentage	Team	PCT
Bassen, Hank	Detroit	0.938
Sawchuk, Terry	Detroit	0.924
Hall, Glenn	Chicago	0.906
Worsley, Gump	New York	0.900
Plante, Jacques	Montreal	0.896

(Boxscores and stats from the BlueLynx hockey spreadsheet.)